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The History of the Lithuanian Jews  From the Middle Ages to the First World War (A General Survey)

Dr. Mark Wishnitzer

43

The Distinctive Traits in
the History of the Lithuanian Jews 
When Have the Jews Appeared in Lithuania? 
The Realm of Lithuania in the Middle Ages  The Union of the
Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1386  The Charters of
1388 and 1389 for the Jews in Lithuania  The Reign of Vytautas (1386-1430),
a Bright Era for the Lithuanian Jews  King and Grand Duke
Casimir (1440-1492) Continues the Policies Regarding the Jews of Vytautas 
The Expulsion of the Jews in 1495  The Return of the Jews in 1503 
The Expanding of the Jewish Population in the 16th Century  The Conditions of
the Jews under the Rule of Sigismund  Sigismund Augustus (1548-1572), a
Liberal Ruler  Anti-Jewish Tendencies among the Middle Classes of the Urban
Population and in the Circles of Impoverished Gentry  The Magdeburg Law
Aggravates the Position of the Jewish Merchants and Artisans  Henry
Válois, a Prince of France, becomes King of Poland and Grand Duke of
Lithuania  A Hard Struggle for the Morsel of Bread after the Economic
Prosperity at the End of the 16th Century and in the Beginning of the
17th  The Disaster Brought by the Invasion of Moscow. The Initial
Emigration to Western Europe  The Economic Decline Brings Social
Discrimination  Vilnius (Wilno) and Kaunas (Kovno)  Spiritual and
Cultural Upsurge in the 17th and 18th Centuries  Lithuanian Jews
under the Rule of Russia  The Strife between the Hasidim and the
Misnagdim  The Rise of the Haskalah  Under the Reign of Nicholas
I  The Difficult Path of the Haskalah and its Progress  The Epoch of
Alexander II  Changes in Social-Economic Conditions in the Second Half of
the 19th Century  1869, the Beginning of the Emigration from the Kovno
Province to the U S A.  Emigration and Self-Help, Zionism and
Bundism  The Revolution in Russia (1905)  On the Eve of the First
World War.

I

1. Outbreak of the War 
2. On the Eve of the Exile  3. The Kuzhi Frame-up and the
Expulsion of Lithuanian Jews  4. The Resounding Effect of the Exile and
New Banishments  5. The Yekopo (Jewish Committee of Relief) Aids
the Hapless Wanderers  6. Pogroms on Lithuanian Jews Who Avoided the
Expulsion  7. The Plight of the Refugees  8. Lithuanian Jews on a
Strange Soil  9. The February Revoluticn of 1917  10. Repatriation.

Jews in the Independent Lithuania (Between the Two World Wars)

Dr. Mendel Sudarsky

119

The Establishment of the Lithuanian Taryba (Council) 
The Taryba of Vilnius Proclaims the Independence of Lithuania and Selects a
King  Jews are Invited to Participate in the Taryba and in the Ministerial Cabinet 
Lithuanian-Jewish Freindship. Dr. Vigodsky the First Jewish Minister 
The Lithuanian Government Moves to Kaunas 
The Molding of the Jewish National Autonomy 
The Government Declaration of May 12, 1922 
The Jewish Part in Political and Industrial Life 
Jewish Cultural and Social Achievements 
The Origination of the Jewish National Council 
Obstacles in its Activities 
The Golden Era of the National Autonomy 
The Downthrow  The Bitter Disappointment 
The Resignation of the Minister of Jewish Affairs, Dr. Soloveichik 
The Desperate Struggle for National Autonomy 
Anti-Jewish Regulations and the Daubing of Jewish Signs 
The Liquidation of the Ministry for Jewish Affairs and the Jewish National Council 
The Blow at the Jewish Communities (Kehilot)  Anti-Jewish Decrees 
The Fight of the Jewish Parliamentarians (Jewish Seim-Faction) for Jewish Rights 
Smetona's Goup d'Etat, December 17, 1926 
Remnants of the National Autonomy 
New Restrictions against Jews 
The Inner Strength of the Lithuanian Jewry.

The Last Year of Existence of the Lithuanian Jewry

Dr. Samuel Greenhaus

153

Vaad of Lithuania (Council of the Union of the Jewish Communities, 1623-1761),
Its Structure and Role in the Social Life of the Lithuanian Jews

Dr. Mark Wishnitzer

163

1. Origin of the Vaad of Lithuania and its General Character 
2. The Economic Legislation of the Vaad 
3. Its Regulations Regarding Education, Social Protection, Family Life and the Ways of Conduct 
4. The Discipline of the Communities and the Functions of their Councils 
5. The Defense of the Rights of the Jews and he Fighting Off of Instigators against Jews 
6. The Composition of the Vaad 
7. Its Business Order 
8. The Executive Body of the Vaad 
9. Contentions among the Leading Forces 
10. Cycles in the History of the Vaad 
11. The Autonomical Organization of the Communities in Samegitia.

The Origin of the Karaites in Lithuania and Poland

Dr J. Brutzkus

193

The Karaites of the Last 150 Years

M. Uriel

203

To the History of the Conference in Kaunas in 1869

Gregory Aronson

209

The Conference in Kaunas in 1909

G. A.

219

The Jewish National Autonomy in Independent Lithuania (Reminiscences with a Critical View)

Dr. Joseph Berger

223

The Second Conference of the Jewish Communities (Kehilot) of Lithuania

Dr. E. Widans

241

The Jewish National Assembly in Lithuania

L. Shimoni

251

The Jews in the Seim (Diet) of Lithuania

M. S.

273

The Jewish Faction in the Seim of Lithuania

Dr. Jacob Robinson

275

The Jewish Faction of the Second Seim

A. Makovsky

279

The Jews in the Municipal Administration

Att. Lazar Lowenstein

287

Lithuania and Its Fight for Vilnius

Dr. Mendel Sudarsky

295

II

LITVAKS

ENVIRONS  NEIGHBORS  MORES  LANGUAGES 
PORTRAIT PAINTINGS

Litvaks

Uriah Katzenelenbogen

307

1. The Ethnographical and Historical Boundaries of Lithuania 
2. The Heathen Lithuania 
3. In the Christian Lithuania 
4. The Jews among Subjugated Peasant Peoples 
5. Insurrections, Liberation of Peasants, Prohibition of Lithuanian and
Whiterussian Languages 
6. Lithuania, a Hostelry of Jewish Learning 
7. The Language Milieu of the Haskalah 
8. Litvaks the World Over 
9. Hopes for Good-Neighborly Relations among the Peoples of Lithuania 
10. The Split Lithuania 
11. Litvaks after the Destruction of the Lithuanian Jewry.

The Tribe of the Litvaks

Dr. Aaron Steinberg

393

1. The Air of Lithuania 
2. The Interpretation of a Cross-Head&quot (Tseilom-Kop) 
3. King Solomon Receives the Last Word 
4. And This is the Blessing.

1. Among My People I Live 
2. Not All of the Lithuanian Jews Talk Alike 
3. Common Peculiarities in the Sounds of all Colloquialisms 
4. The Notorious Confusion of S and Sh (Sabesdiker Losn) 
5. The Yiddish of Samogitia 
6. The Usual Lithuanian Yiddish 
7. The Yiddish of Suvlkija 
8. About the Origin of the Diversity of Colloquialisms 
9. The Grammatical Gender in our Usage 
10. More Idiosyncrasies in the Grammar of the Lithuanian Dialect 
11. The Vocabulary of the Lithuanian Yiddish 
12. Lithuanianisms in Yiddish 
13. Typical Proverbs of Our Localities.

Introductory 
Hasidot and Misnagdot 
The Gaon of Wilno and his Disciples 
The Yeshibah of Volozhin 
The Yeshibot of Mir and Eishishkai 
The Medium Yeshibot 
Learners in Synagogues 
Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Musar-Movement 
The Musar-Yeshibot of Slabodka (Viliampole) and Novogrodek.

1. Kaunas-Aleksotai 
2. How Simcha Zissl was Converted to Musar and his Disciple Nathan Hirsch
3. Slabodka and Nehardea 
4. A Last Musar-Discourse.

HASKALAH (ENLIGHTENMENT)

The Cultural History of the Haskalah of the Lithuanian Jews

Dr. Jacob Shatzky

691

The Forerunners of the Haskalah Movement 
The First Champions of the Maskilim in Lithuania 
The Haskalah in Lithuania in the Period of 1794 to 1830 
Jewish Printing Establishments in Lithuania 
Prince Adam Czartoryski, the Maskilizator 
Jews in the University of Wilno 
Lithuania after 1812 
Haskalah in Lithuania in the Years 1824-1841 
The Officious Haskalah (1841-1873) 
The Rabbinical Seminary of Wilno 
The Situation After 1863 
The Ideological Strife 
Haskalah-Literature.

I. The Increase and the National Status of the Population of Lithuania 
II. The Jewish Population in Kovno Government for the Last Century 
III. The Population Movement of the Lithuanian Jews 
IV The Emigration of the Jews and Non-Jews 
V. The Economic Development of the Kovno-Government and the Jewish Participation in it in the Middle of the 19th Century 
VI. The Transition Period between Kovno-Government and Independent Country 
VII. The Social Aspects of the Different Peoples in Independent Lithuania according to the Census of 1923 
VIII. The Economic Advancement of the Independent Lithunia 
IX. The Economic Condition of the Jews in Independent Lithuania 
X. Jewish Artisans in Independent Lithuania 
XI. Jews in the Professions 
XII. The Jewish Cooperative Movement.

The Pioneer of the Leather Industry in Lithuania, Hyim Frankel Narrated by his son, Jacob Frankel.

Transcribed by Uriah Katzenelenbogen

941

His Parents and Youth 
Settling in Shauliai 
The Rise of his Tannery 
New Tanning Chemicals 
Our Shoe Factory 
Shauliai, a World Center of Leather 
Our Agents 
The Productivity of the Leather Plant 
Our Customers 
Relatives 
At Home and in the World 
The First World War and After.

IV

Jewish Artisans and Their Guilds in Lithuania

Dr. Mark Wishnitzer

971

Of Jewish Rural Occupations in Lithuania

Hirsh Abramovitz

985

Fishing and Inn-Keeping.

Agriculture and Gardening among Lithuanian Jews

Engineer-Agronomist Jacob Rossein

997

1. A Glimpse of History and Statistics 
2. Big Land Ownership 
3. Husbandry of Village-Peasants 
4. Farming in the Suburbs 
5. Suburban Gardens and Orchards 
6. House Gardening.

1. From the Beginning of the War to the Inclusion in the Ghetto 
2. The Time of the Aktionen 
3. The So-Called Quiet Period 
4. Recurrent Aktionen,
Exile to Estonia, The Liquidation.

The Arbeit-Einsatz (Forced Labor) in the Ghetto of Kaunas

Agronomist Jacob Oleisky

1713

Medical Aid in the Ghetto and in the Concentration Camp

Dr. Aaron Percikovitz

1719

A Day Behind Barbed Wires.

Dr. S. Dolnitzky

1735

Cultural Activities in the Ghetto of Kaunas

Dr. Samuel Greenhaus

1743

A Jewish Teen-Age Girl in the Concentration Camp (Katzet)

Vera Elijashev

1757

The Annihilated Family of Moishe Katz

L. Odes 1763

VII

The Destruction of the Jews in the Ghetto of Shauliai and of the Adjacent Towns

A. Jerushalmi

1767

The First Massacres 
The Tanneries 
The Jews Forced into the Ghetto 
The Aktionen 
Aerodrome 
The Hospital 
The Public School 
The Werkstuben (Workhouses) 
The Reduction of the Ghetto Area 
The Turf-Decree 
August 20, 1942 
The List of the 27 
The Winter-Camps 
Working Places Outside of the Ghetto 
The Abolishing of the Currency System 
Camps of 1943 
The Gallows 
Reopening of the School  -
The Kasernierung (Transfer to Barracks) 
Children Aktion 
The Rescued Children 
Change in the Ghetto Administration 
Camp A. B. A. 
Evacuation from the Camps 
Evacuation from the Ghetto of Shauliai 
Foreign Camps of Panevezhys and Jonishkis 
Extermination of the Jews of Tytuvenai 
The Perishing Jews of Telshiai and Adjacent Alsedzhiai, Vevirzhenai, Varnel,
Zharenai, Tverai, Luoke, Navarenai, Plunge, Plateliai, Rietava 
Why No Renstance? 
Our Annihilation and the Lithuanian Attitude.

To the History of the Destruction of the Lithuanian Jewry

Joseph Gar

1833

Introductory 
How the Jews Were Tortured to Death in Panevzhys 
Atrocious Killings of the Jews in Mariampole 
The Perishing of the Jews in Garleva, Pakonys, Veiveriai, Mavruchiai and Other
Communities Near Kaunas 
A Lithuanian Professor Repents.